A Preliminary Faunistic Survey of Carabidae (Coleoptera) from Gaomei Wetlands Wildlife Refuge, Taichung City, Taiwan

A systematic survey of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) was conducted at Gaomei Wetlands Wildlife Refuge. We discovered 19 carabid species in the study area and provide a complete list of them. Among four sampling sites, the northern side of the Dajia River estuary had the highest species richness, where 14 species of Carabidae were recorded. The species compositions were also different across sampling sites, probably caused by habitat heterogeneity in Gaomei Wetlands Wildlife Refuge. In addition, we provide notes on the two most abundant species. Bembidion foochowense Lindroth 1980 is rediscovered and represents the first recorded littoral ground beetle in central Taiwan. Mastax brittoni Quentin, 1952, the species with three different elytral color patterns but has a constant elytral color pattern in our survey and occurs sympatrically with ants. Our investigation was focussed on the carabid fauna of central Taiwan and implied the insufficient investigation of littoral ground beetles.